‘Cotabato gov ordered Kidapawan dispersal’

Sacked police chief testifies in Senate probe

MANILA, Philippines – The governor of North Cotabato gave the order to disperse, but the relieved provincial police chief yesterday denied giving an order to open fire on protesting farmers who were demanding rice assistance in Kidapawan last April 1. 

“I was ordered by the chairman of the crisis management committee, and that is our governor,” Senior Supt. Alexander Tagum told the Senate committee on justice and human rights chaired by Sen. Vicente Sotto III when asked who gave the order to disperse the rally.

According to Tagum, he understood that the order to disperse was made to clear the Davao-Cotabato highway, which the protesters had been occupying for four days before the incident.

Senators fumed after four Cabinet members and the chief of the Philippine National Police failed to show up at the hearing.

Tagum said the farmers did not obey instructions for them to stay on the side of the highway.

Despite pressure from senators, Tagum maintained that he had directed his men to strictly exercise maximum tolerance during the rally, insisting that there was no order to fire on the farmers.

Tagum told the probers that his men strictly exercised maximum tolerance even as the dispersal resulted in the firing of live ammunition. Three people, including two farmers, were killed and more than 100 hurt during the violent dispersal.

“I did not order my men to fire at the people. The deaths were according to the militant groups,” Tagum insisted.

Policemen who have been identified as among those who fired their service firearms during the dispersal have been relieved from their posts and ordered restricted to camp pending administrative investigations against them.

Senate minority leader Juan Ponce Enrile also blew his top yesterday over the failure of key cabinet secretaries to attend the second hearing on the violent dispersal of farmers’ rally last April 1 in Kidapawan City.

“This event affected 6,000 members of our national community. And I supposed the government put a value on the plight of Filipinos who rally for food, unless the cabinet members are busy regarding other matters of the state,” Enrile said at the start of the hearing.

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III, justice and human rights committee chairman, said Police Director General Ricardo Marquez and Secretaries Mel Sarmiento, Dinky Soliman, Proceso Alcala and Rogelio Singson were all invited to the hearing but only sent representatives.  

He branded the absence as a “boycott” and set another hearing as Enrile would not allow the secretaries to get away with their absence.

“What are those urgent matters… that prevent (them) from coming here to honor the invitation of a committee of a co-equal branch of the government? Let the axe fall where it must fall. You know, running a government is simply a common sense issue,” Enrile said.

Tagum said they did not arrest anybody prior to the dispersal and dispelled reports that they harassed some of those arrested at the height of the crackdown.

He revealed that the militants who joined the protest could have killed the farmers, as he maintained that he did not give the order to fire on the group.

During the hearing, National Food Authority assistant administrator Mercedes Yakapin reported that 75,170 bags of 50 kilos each of rice were released in the region.

Taliño-Mendoza said the Department of Social Welfare and Development, through the Red Cross, started distributing rice to the concerned families that were identified by the DSWD after the incident.

Until yesterday, the government had allocated only 250 bags of rice per municipality since the tragedy.

In San Fernando City, the farmers’ group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) urged the government to release P52 billion that are “at the disposal of three cabinet secretaries” to help farmers affected by El Niño.

The group said at least P52 billion in quick reaction fund (QRF), national disaster risk reduction management fund and people’s survival fund, could be tapped to aid the farmers.

“These funds are at the disposal of Budget Secretary Butch Abad, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, and Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman,” the KMP said.

Tagum

The group said that the QRF under the DA include the P11.9-million balance for 2015 and the P496.6 million for 2016, while the QRF under the DSWD include the P703.6-million balance for 2015 and the P1.6 billion for 2016.

It also said there is a P5-billion balance for 2015 and P43 billion for 2016 under the disaster management fund on top of the P1 billion in survival fund.

“The government is awash with funds. Yet, it neglected and left drought-hit farmers and their families starving and abandoned,” lamented KMP chairperson Rafael Mariano.

He noted that a state of calamity has been declared in seven provinces, five cities and 24 municipalities, while more than P10 billion worth of crops have been destroyed in 373,491 hectares of parched farmlands because of this year’s El Nino. ??

“The drought will continue for at least three more months, affecting the May-June planting season. Farmers and tillers are hungry. Even sources of potable water are almost dried up. Under these dire conditions, a nationwide farmers’ unrest is inevitable,” Mariano warned.

In Angeles City, the Anakpawis party-list group has urged the Senate to hold Taliño-Mendoza responsible for the violent dispersal of hungry farmers in Kidapawan City last April 1.

It also urged the Senate committee on justice and human rights to investigate the governor for allegedly abandoning her constituents “to hunger and death.”

“Mendoza is a close ally of President Aquino and Liberal Party presidential bet Mar Roxas,” said Anakpawis Rep. Fernando Hicap in a statement.

“We urge the honorable senators to consider the root of the problem. If only the governor had addressed the concerns of the people she was supposed to serve and aided them with relief goods, no one would have joined rallies and deaths could have been prevented,” Hicap added.

He went to Kidapawan City on April 5 as member of a negotiating team seeking the immediate withdrawal of government forces around the United Methodist Church Sportswood compound.

Leaders of the church had been supportive of the 71 farmers who were arrested and charged after the dispersal. ???

“I have actually witnessed a replica of ‘martial law’ where thousands of already hungry farmers and a religious group who acted as sanctuary are being harassed like high-risk terrorists. This is totally condemnable and we firmly believe all emanate from the governor’s explicit orders,” Hicap said.

Anakpawis also urged the Senate “to scrutinize the Aquino government’s incapacity to respond to the people’s welfare in times of calamity” and to hold Alcala accountable.

“Alcala, who was always censured annually by COA audit reports, had the guts to accuse the New People’s Army for the April 1 rally of farmers. He has also been downplaying the effects of El Niño,” Hicap noted.

He added that Alcala’s agency has yet to concretely and effectively serve the tens of thousand of farmers feeling the brunt of the drought. – With Ding Cervantes